ALXnow, Aug. 12, 2025 — In today’s edition of ALXnow, publisher Ryan Belmore explains that Mayor Alyia Gaskins hosted her third annual back-to-school salon event on Tuesday, Aug. 12, providing free professional hairstyling, backpacks, and food to girls living in Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority properties across the city.
The event, held at Iye’s Beauty Salon, located at 4600 Duke Street, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., served between 15 and 20 girls, ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade, as well as one young man.
“Three years ago, I attended a local backpack drive, and there were haircuts being offered for the young men, but there was nothing for the young girls,” Gaskins said. “And I started thinking about what could we do to make sure that every girl feels confident and ready for her first day of school.”
The initiative stems from Gaskins’ experience serving on a gang prevention task force, where she learned that girls as young as nine were engaging in gang activity primarily due to low self-esteem.
“I think this is an opportunity to help remind every young woman she’s beautiful, she’s intelligent, and she’s prepared to have her best year yet,” she said.
The Concrete Rose Scholarship Foundation, founded by Alexandria resident Andrea Walton, sponsored the event for the first time this year.
Walton, who overcame challenges as a teen mother on welfare to become an executive, established the foundation during the pandemic to provide scholarships for underrepresented girls. “It’s important because it provides not only confidence, allows them to have access to education, and make sure that they have what they need to start the year off strong,” Walton said.